Taps



Aug. 12,1969

' C. A- LANE ET AL TAPS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed D60. 13, 1965 Aug. 12, 1969 c. A. LANE ETAL 3,460,715

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Filed Dec. 13, 19 65 T 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I nven orJ! United States Patent M 3,460,715 TAPS Charles Anthony Lane, Ham, and Alan Thomas Jones, London, England, assignors to Waddington & Duval (Holdings) Limited, London, England Filed Dec. 13, 1965, Ser. No. 513,374 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Dec. 22, 1964, 52,120/ 64 Int. Cl. B67h 7/26; F16k 51/00 U.S. Cl. 22290 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A tap for a bag in a box container comprising a pointed probe section for piercing the inner bag and provided with a hole or holes communicating with an interior passage through the tap body, which passage terminates in an outlet hole, the flow of liquid from the outlet hole being controllable by a rotary valve element, the body of the tap being provided with means for engagement with the outer protective box to prevent the body of the tap turning on operation of the valve element.

Description of invention This invention relates to taps.

It is especially concerned with taps for controlling the flow of liquids from containers of the type recently introduced and comprising a thin sealed bag of plastic material such as polythene, the bag being designed to receive liquid and being located within a relatively rigid outer protective box of cardboard, plastics material or the like. Such containers which are referred to hereafter as a bag in a box containers, are readily transportable in bulk and it is undesirable to provide them with a permanently positioned projecting tap which would tend to be damaged.

A tap for a bag in a box container of this type in accordance with the invention comprises a pointed probe section for piercing the inner bag and provided with a hole or holes communicating with an interior passage through the tap body, which passage terminates in an outlet hole, the fiow of liquid through the outlet hole being controllable by a rotary valve element, the body of the tap being provided with means engageable with the outer protective box to prevent the body of the tap turning on operation of the valve element.

Preferably the body of the tap is formed with means such as pegs or the like adjacent the probe section and designed to pass through a pre-cut hole in the box so that when the tap is pushed into position through the hole in the box its probe section pierces the inner plastic bag and the tap is then rotated through 90 to be then held in position due to engagement of the pegs beneath the box wall, the outlet hole being located in a part of the tap body projecting outwardly from the box.

The means for preventing rotation of the tap body relatively to the box may comprise a lug designed to engage in a corresponding slot projecting outwardly from the pre-cut hole in the box.

Embodiments of a tap in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of tap in its position in a box;

FIGURE 2 is a section through the tap and box shown in FIGURE 1 partly exploded;

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the tap body;

FIGURE 4 is an end view of the valve element of the tap; and

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of tap.

Patented Aug. 12, 1969 The tap comprises essentially a tapered probe section generally indicated at 2 provided with a sharpened point 4 and having an interior passage -6 communicating with three holes 8 passing through the wall of the probe. The probe section is formed integrally with a tubular body part 10 carrying a rotary valve element in the form of a tubular sleeve 12, which is a tight fit and the hollow interior of which is open to the passage 6 in the probe. The wall of the valve element 12 is formed with a hole 14 which on rotation of the valve element relatively to the body by means of a handle 16 can either be aligned with a hole 18 through the wall of the body portion 10 to enable liquid to be discharged, or can be mis-aligned to prevent the flow of liquid through the tap.

The outer edge of the tap body 10 is formed with a rim 20 extending for about The two edges of the rim engage against a shoulder 22 projecting outwardly from the inner face of the handle 16 so as to limit the turning movement of the valve element to two limits at one of which the holes 14 and 18 are aligned and at the other of which the two holes are mis-aligned by 180.

The tap is designed for use with a container comprising an inner sealed bag 2-4 of polythene or the like located within a cardboard box 26 having a hole 28 formed in its wall.

When the probe section is pushed through the hole against the wall of the polythene bag, the bag is pierced by the pointed end 4 and rides up over the tapered probe section 2 to engage in a groove 30 to form a leak proof bond.

The hole 28 in the box has two opposed slots 32, 34 of different lengths and the body portion of the tap is formed with two projecting pegs 36, 38 of the same lengths as the slots 32, 34 respectively. The outer surface of each peg is tapered. The body is also formed with two flanges 40 each of which has a projecting lug 42. The flanges are spaced from the pegs along the length of the body by a distance approximately equal to the thickness of the cardboard of the box.

The pegs 36 and 38 are inserted through their corresponding slots 32 and 34 in the box wall and the tap is then turned through ninety degrees by the two projectious 42. Due to the tapering surfaces of the pegs they slide beneath the wall of the box squeezing the box wall between the pegs and the flanges. The tap is thus firmly held onto the box and is prevented from being pulled out. In the final position a lug 44 projecting out from the tap body beneath one of the flanges 40 engages in the slot 34 corresponding to the longer peg 38. In this position the tap is firmly fixed and cannot be rotated relatively to the container when the valve element is being turned to open and close the tap.

The holes 8 through the wall of the probe are in communication with the contents of the box but liquid can only be discharged through the tap when the hole 14 of the rotary valve element and the hole 118 of the body of the tap are aligned.

The modified version of the tap shown in FIGURE 5 difiers from that illustrated in FIGURES 1-4 in that the probe 2 has a parallel section 46 on which the bag seals rather than a groove 30 as in the construction shown in FIGURES 1-4. This has the advantage that if there is any movement of the bag film towards the point 4 of the probe it will not move on to a portion of reduced diameter which would cause leakage.

The tap shown in FIGURE 5 is prevented from rotating relatively to the container by means of a square shoulder 48 projecting from a flange 50 which shoulder engages in a square hole in the wall of the bag. The tap is provided with a spout 52 communicating with the outlet hole 18 so as more closely to direct the flow of liquid.

Finally the handle of the valve element is formed with a blade 54 to assist in turning.

We claim:

1. In a tap for insertion into a container wall, the combination of a probe member and a valve member, said probe member comprising a hollow cylinder having an inner end formed into a closed conical portion and an open outer end, an inlet opening adjacent said inner end communicating with the interior of said probe member, a lateral discharge opening adjacent said outer end of said probe member, radially disposed outwardly extending flanges on said probe and positioned between said openings, securing means extending radially outwardly from said probe positioned between said flanges and said inlet opening, said securing means adapted to fit into a slot in the container wall to prevent rotation of the probe, said flanges and said securing means being adapted to cooperatively engage and tightly compress the peripheral portion of a container wall opening therebetween so as to prevent axial and rotational movement of said probe relative to the container wall during actuation of said valve member, said valve member comprising a hollow cylinder having an open inner end and a closed outer end and telescopically and rotatably received within said probe member, a discharge opening in said valve member positioned in alignment with said probe discharge opening so as to be rotatable into communication therewith, an axially inwardly facing groove including an outer wall surrounding the outer end of said valve member for telescopically and rotatably receiving the outer end of said probe member, gripping means extending outwardly of said outer wall, said outer end of said probe member having a recessed portion providing circumferentially spaced apart axially inwardly extending shoulder portions and a stop member extending across said groove for selectively engaging said shoulder portions upon rotation of said valve member to position said valve member discharge opening in or out of alignment with said probe discharge opening.

2. A tap as claimed in claim 1 having a second means to engage the wall of the box to prevent the tap from being pulled out from the box once it has been inserted thereinto and the inner bag pierced.

3. A tap as claimed in claim 1 in which the means to prevent the tap from being pulled from the box comprises projections which can pass through pre-cut holes in the box, and on turning of the tap relatively to the box can engage the inner side of the box wall.

4. A tap as claimed in claim 1 having flanges spaced from the projections by a distance approximately equal to the thickness of the wall of the box.

5. A tap as claimed in claim 1, one of said projections and one pre-cut hole being longer than the other; and said means for engagement with the outer protective box to prevent the body of the tap turning on operation of the valve element comprising a lug projecting from said tap body at the front face of the box and engaging said longer pre-cut hole when the tap body is turned relatively to the box.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,475,988 12/1923 Dieu 222 2,751,119 6/1956 Manning 2228l 3,239,104 3/1966 Scholle 22281 FOREIGN PATENTS 960,123 6/ 1964 Great Britain.

WILLIAM F. ODEA, Primary Examiner D. R. MATTHEWS, Assistant Examiner 

